What About Bob?

Bob’s in South Africa and will be blogging about his trip from time to time. He landed the other day and sent in his first entry:

It’s a long ass plane ride. There’s just no other way to put it.

Total in-air flight time is 18 hours. Include your layover and security time, it’s another 4. That’s 22 hours of cramped legs, seatbelts, turbulence, mini-me sized bags of peanuts, and mindless journeys through the cabin. You know you’ve been airborne for too long when a trip to the bathroom becomes the highlight of your day. I only relieved myself 4 or 5 times, but I visited that tiny palace at least 8 or 9 times. Fun Fact: if you rip a small piece of paper towel, stick it to your hand, then hold it one foot over the toilet while pressing flush, the suction from that turbo-powered suck machine will tear that dangling napkin right from your hand and send it off to that special place in the sky for in-flight #1’s and 2’s.

I wonder what would happen if you hit flush while still sitting on that thing?

Now that the typical 22 hour flight complaint is over, I should take a paragraph to recognize the good things about it…ok, maybe not a paragraph, how about a sentence.

The Northwest, KLM in-flight entertainment is AWESOME!!

It does eventually end. When it does, your destination seems all the more sweet. Not that the welcoming 80 degrees of Cape Town, South Africa needs any added flavor. And nothing is better than the feeling of stepping outside and saying to yourself: “Welcome to Africa.”

This is my third time in South Africa. Obviously this trip holds much more weight seeing that I’ll be here, 7,000 miles from home, getting married to the most beautiful South African girl in the world (sorry Charlize Theron). To add to the delight, my parents and one of my dearest friends will also be here. For those of you who know my parents, this is their first time out of the country. I really can’t wait to see my Dad interacting with the locals! And my Mom…she manages to find beauty where ever she goes. When she sees this place, she’s gonna go crazy. Her thick Boston accent will take over, she’ll scream out thanks to God for creating such a place, then will attempt to say something in Afrikaans. It’s going to be classic!

My fiance’s parents live in a beautiful house right near the beach in a town called Kleinmond (you can Googlemap it if you’d like). That’s where I am now, enjoying the sun, fighting through jetlag, and eating to my heart’s content. Yesterday we visited the venue where we’ll be getting “hitched.” It’s a quaint old building with a giant Eucalyptus tree taking over the front. Out back, a beautiful landscape of Willow trees and ponds. The green grass runs along exotic lines of yellow and red bushes then disappears into a rolling landscape of green hills (cue “The Sound of Music). When you let your eyes wander higher, a majestic mountain sits quietly in the distance. Cheesy, I know. But it’s my very own valley and I’m absolutely in love with it.

There’s so much to do and even though I’ll be here for a month, it somehow doesn’t seem like enough time.

That’s all for now. Friends and family will be arriving soon so I’ll check back in later in the week!

Thanks for reading…I’m going to the beach!

~ bob